Owen Biesel

@owenbiesel.bsky.social

711 Followers 593 Following

Math prof, dad, gardener, knitter, bike rider, community member, friendly introvert. he/him 🏳️‍🌈 Also on mastodon as @owenbiesel@mathstodon.xyz

Pen and marker drawing of a solar-powered pump connecting a rain barrel to a small underground reservoir made from two terra cotta plant pots. A tomato seedling's roots have already wrapped around the water source.
Marker and ink drawing of several 4-foot square garden plots, with a variety of vegetables and flowers growing in each one
Marker and ink sketch of a platform holding a small cabinet and a refrigerator. A large solar panel forms a tilted roof with a backup battery on the side of the fridge. The cabinet door is open, showing colorful packages and tins of shelf-stable foods.
Marker and pen drawing of a blue little free library in a bed of pink, orange, and blue flowers
Vector graphic image of a woman riding an e-bike up a steep hill, one fist in the air. In a crate on the bike's back rack is a protest sign showing a picture of the earth. The front wheel includes a "Rock to Rock" logo. Text above and below the bike reads "The SEAS are RISING / and so are WE"
Photo of a sketchpad lying on mottled blue carpet. The sketchpad marker-and-ink drawing shows a wooden latticework with potted plants hanging in the spaces between the beams. The plants are different colors of green, and a little purple. Some pots are empty, and there are a few spaces in the lattice still to fill.
Hashtag: Solarpunk Art August Daily art prompts 8/1: plants 8/2: protest 8/3: voting 8/4: little free libraries 8/5: little free pantries 8/6: community gardens 8/7: solar sprinklers 8/8: repair cafés 8/9: balcony gardens 8/10: urban gardens 8/11: bicycles 8/12: solar ovens 8/13: permaculture 8/14: disability rights 8/15: third spaces 8/16: LGBTQ+ families 8/17: intersectionality 8/18: pollinators 8/19: desert solarpunk 8/20: snowy solarpunk 8/21: tropical solarpunk 8/22: libraries (all kinds) 8/23: agrivoltaics 8/24: mini wind turbines 8/25: guerrilla gardening 8/26: public transit 8/27: warming/cooling centers 8/28: urban tree canopy 8/29: weather stations 8/30: heat pumps 8/31: intentional living
When we exited the boat at its first dock in a transit station in the adjoining zone, we had been able to take (1) a pipe transport, (2) a tram to another transit station, (3) another pipe transport. We were moving relatively quickly then and I made the mistake of getting optimistic. Then we got to a border and found the only option was to rent a ground vehicle and drive across two unaffiliated zones because both had zero mass transport. Zero. Mass. Transport. This is supposed to be a civilized space station, in space, why the fuck am I driving a ground vehicle to get to a fucking port on a fucking— (Emotion check: I am absolutely fine.)
Screenshot of a social media post by Greenwich Police: During the initial five-day speed study conducted prior to the program's launch, automated tracking recorded 36,922 individual speeding events across eight Greenwich school zones. This pre-program study was conducted without public awareness that speed monitoring equipment had been deployed, allowing for an authentic baseline measurement of speeding behavior in these areas. The school zones included in the study were: Brunswick Lower School Central Middle School Eagle Hill School Glenville School Greenwich Academy Greenwich High School (two locations) North Street School After the public was notified that automated speed enforcement cameras would be installed in town, speeding violations immediately decreased to 15,319 events, demonstrating a significant behavioral shift through awareness alone. Once the enforcement phase began and citations were actively issued, the number of speeding violations dropped even further to 2,863 events. From the initial pre-program study to active enforcement, Greenwich experienced a 92.2% reduction in speeding violations within monitored school zones.
Photo of unshoveled sidewalk outside a Citgo gas station. Many, many footprints have trampled the snow, but it's nowhere near flat enough to get a wagon across — I tried.
White and yellow all-caps text on a photo of sunny fields and trees: "Now is a good time to remind everyone that investing in renewable energy literally prevents wars."
A screenshot of the graphs of two cubic functions: red and blue. The red function is the one we graphed before, with the root at about 1.75. The blue graph looks the same as the red graph, just shifted to the left so that its inflection point is on the y-axis.
Desmos plot of a cubic polynomial. The only root is marked at x=1.75488.
A screenshot of a google spreadsheet. The columns are labeled N, e(N), s(N), m(N), and f(N). The "N" column shows the positive integers 1 through 9, and the e(N), s(N), and m(N) columns start with their initial values 1, 0, and 1. The "e(2)" cell is selected to show that it calculates the sum of the "e(1)" and "m(1)" cells, as in the recurrence relations. The "f(N)" cells show the totals of the other three calculated columns: f(1)=2, f(2)=4, f(3)=7, f(4)=12, f(5)=21, and so on.
A map of the continental US and southern Canada showing a dense sprinkling of colorful Sun symbols, one for each Sun Day event.
Photo of my hand holding three library books: "Bullshit Jobs" by David Graeber, "The Grid" by Gretchen Bakke, and "The Lost Cause" by Cory Doctorow
Photo from the perspective of riding a bike. Attached to the handlebars is a black milk crate with a pink backpack, a hi-vis bag, and a rolled-up beach towel. Ahead of the bike is a road intersection, and behind it, a large natural cliff rising against the horizon.
Alignment chart for different ways to write nonabelian. Lawful good: non-commutative Neutral good: noncommutative Chaotic good: non commutative Lawful neutral: non-Abelian True neutral: nonabelian Chaotic neutral: non Abelian Lawful evil: non-abelian Neutral evil: non abelian Chaotic evil: nonAbelian
The matrix product (3 4 \\ 8 7) (7 2 \\ 4 9) = (37 42 \\ 84 79), with the entries from the first matrix colored red (along with the matching tens digits in the product) and the entries from the second matrix colored blue (along with the ones digits in the product). Shown with the "Well yes, but actually no" Pirate Captain meme.
Spiderman pointing at Spiderman, but with seven Spidermans (Spidermen?) labeled "det(A)≠0", "columns form basis", "rank(A)=n", "No free variables", "Ax=b unique solution", "A invertible", and "0 not an eigenvalue."
The aurora borealis part of the "Steamed Hams" Simpsons sketch, with the following dialogue: Chalmers: You're saying there are exactly n complex roots for any nth-degree polynomial? Skinner (labeled "Gauss"): Yes. Chalmers: May I see them? Skinner (labeled "Galois"): No.
Three cats snuggling. The cat on the left looks happy and is labeled "midpoint sum." The cat on the right is also happy and labeled "trapezoid sum." The cat in the middle looks irritated at being squished and is labeled "definite integral."
Photo with the heading "Correlation Vs. Causation" Shown is a railing on a grassy beach with two seagulls. One seagull is perched on a straight section of railing. The other is at the bottom of segment bent into a V-shape, suggesting that the weight of the seagull bent the railing.
Meme format "Depends on the context" with the following panels: Clara: Is f continuous? Doctor: Depends on the context. Doctor: In the standard topology? No. Doctor: In the discrete topology? Yes.
Photo of me using my finger to indicate the square spiral pattern of a glass bus shelter. My face is showing excitement, I guess?
A Venn diagram of quadrilaterals, where each region is shaped like the type of quadrilateral it contains. For example, a brown rectangle intersects a teal rhombus in a pink square, because the intersection of the set of rectangles and the set of rhombi is the set of squares.
A multiple choice survey question with options "None", "Mild", "Moderate", "Severe", "Extreme", and "Prefer not to say". The question is "Age".
Screenshot of Paramount+'s "We're sorry to see you go!" survey. The "Other (provide feedback below)" option is selected, and the provided feedback is "The loss of CBS's editorial independence means the loss of its customers."
Photo of a mug on a store shelf. The mug has a slogan, the bottom half of which is obscured by a sticker. The slogan and sticker together say "The future is / reduced for quick sale: $2"
What is the Presidential Election Campaign Fund? You can choose to have $3 go to the Presidential Election Campaign Fund. This fund helps pay for Presidential election campaigns. The fund reduces candidates' dependence on large contributions from individuals and groups and places candidates on an equal financial footing in the general election. The fund also helps pay for pediatric medical research. Your tax refund won't change if you choose this option.
Message Regarding Pause on Federal Grants and Loans Dear CSCU Community, The White House Office of Management and Budget sent a memo to federal agencies Monday, ordering a temporary pause to all grants and loans disbursed by the federal government effective at 5:00 p.m. today. At this moment, the scope of the impact of this memo on higher education and CSCU remains unclear. However, the memo does indicate that the term federal financial assistance does not include assistance provided directly to individuals, nor does it impact Medicare or Social Security. Our immediate concerns surround not only financial assistance to our students in many forms and other higher education grants, but also the other federally funded programs that so many of our students and their families rely on. CSCU is closely monitoring the situation and has reached out to our partners at the state and federal levels. We understand the challenges this situation presents, and we will provide updates to you as new information becomes available. Thank you, Terrence Cheng CSCU Chancellor
A diagram showing a three-dimensional array of balls, forming a brick with a 4x4 base of balls and 5 balls high with an extra triangular array stuck to the side. The slices from top to bottom have 16, 17, ..., 20 balls, and the slices from front to back have 21, 22, ..., 24 balls.
The cover of the children's board game "First Orchard", showing a black crow-like bird with a yellow beak.